Full Circle Associates

A few days ago I warned I might unleash a flood of blog posts, trying to release all the things that recently caught my attention or which I am trying to find the words -- and space of clarity -- to say.

That is not enough. Floodgates releasing waves of half baked bits can serve a purpose, but that is not what I'm seeking.

I'm seeking patterns.

In my gut, my instict, I'm feeling the quickening of the pace of change in our world. I'm reading Tapscott's Wikinomics this weekend and he most excitedly talks about it. (I wish I shared as much optimism as he has). I read blog posts and nod in strong agreement.

We feel it.

We seek to name it.

But it is more than naming. Like the increasingly vapid nature of the "2.0" label, we need more than a label. We are blowing past the labels too quick. We need a language that can evolve as things change, and an ability to notice patterns that help us navigate the currents.

I was checking my vanity feeds and was led to Marica's Meanderings. This would be one of the detours. Marica, you have a lovely blog and I kept reading and reading. I was there beside you, watching the leek bud swell. Your 365 day project sings out, and it is the prose that captures me, while the photos complement the text.

Anyway, Marica had a post to this map, Trends in the Living Networks: Trend map for 2007 and beyond. I got shivers. No label, but the metphor of a map. (Larger image pdf here.) A pattern to give us a way to talk about the future.

Like Marcia, I particularly appreciated the "river of conciousness" that runs through Ross Dawson's map.

Conciousness, it seems to me, is how we tap into our pattern recognition skills. Slowing. Stepping back for a different perspective.

On Ross's map, I'm looking at the intersections. The sun is out in Seattle today, so "happiness" catches my eye first. The intersection of happiness brings together the threads of business & work, society & culture, food & drink (CHOCOLATE!) medicine & wellbeing, and interestingly, just sidesteps retail and leisure. Media & communication, transport & automotive, financial services, science & technology and government & politics don't intersect at the happiness station.

Looking at intersections is a way to notice a pattern. I'm not quite sure what to make of it, but I have that sense of "yes, pay attention to this."

As we work on finishing the Technology for Communities book (notice I am no longer using the word report?? ;-) ) we are diving deeper into trying to notice the patterns about how technology and community shape each other.

As I work with the design team for the Nexus for Change gathering in Ohio in March, a keen question for me was surfaced by Kenoli Oleari. The gathering, which brings the founders, practitioners, academics and leaders of a myriad of change methods together, is a chance to try and notice what underlying patterns bind these productive change methodologies. What new patterns might we notice as we remix the methods, and invent new ones on top of the old? How can that advance the practice of nurturing productive change in organizations and groups?

Oh, another Detour. Barbara Sawhill pinged me on Skype the other day and I remembered, duh, Barbara is in Ohio! Maybe I can see here in March. If she had not pinged me, would I have thought to set up a get together? What is this pattern that I used to call "kismet" that is consistently showing up in my life, bringing bits together that make more sense together than apart? It was not a concious action. What was it?

At tea on Friday, a friend said that my skill was rapidly noting patterns, the activating the useful network to act on that pattern and create action or change.

I notice I am good at seeing those patterns close to the ground. I can articulate them. But the bigger ones I feel, but have a great deal of difficulty describing them. I feel them in the way a magnet pulls a piece of iron. The way a sunflower can tilt, changing, across the day as the sun traces the horizon.

I don't even know what I'm trying to do with this blog post, but it is just coming out of my fingers.

There must be a pattern to discover.

[Edited Jan 27 to correct the spelling of Marica's name. Sorry, Marica!]